Live Forever. BritPop 20 years on.

There were encouraging signs as early as 1991, when I witnessed a visiting Welsh band play a spikey set in Coventry to a handful of people. They looked and sounded as though they had to be on stage rather than wanting to through a desire to be rich and famous. They were called the Manic Street Preachers and went on to do rather well. Then in 92, the charts were attacked by a band called Suede. Almost definitively British, there were reference points ranging from Bowie to The Smiths but the swagger was certainly their own. Their first album became the fastest selling debut in British chart history.

It was beginning to happen. British youth culture was realising there was nothing to fear from its heritage but plenty to embrace. The music papers were still an influential source back then and they began to champion the notion of a indigenous movement. Another turning point was in 1993, when Blur released, Modern Life Is Rubbish. There were echoes of the song writing sensibilities of Ray Davis within the songs. A open desire to write about what affected them in their own environment. 

It was a critically acclaimed rather than commercial triumph. But that changed a year later when they continued to develop their newly found template with Parklife which achieved huge success. The floodgates were opening and that was confirmed by the arrival of a bunch of streetwise lads from Manchester called Oasis. Songwriter Noel Gallagher had been a roadie for The Inspiral Carpets. With a song catalogue that reflected the song writing skills of Lennon and McCartney, sang with a John Lydon rasp by brother Liam, they couldn't go wrong. Their debut, Definitely Maybe shattered Suede's record quickest selling first release.

There was another sea change in the way Radio 1 embraced the new movement which had been coined, "BritPop" by the ever keen to label media. When punk broke, radio clung to the old guard consigning a lot of bands now considered legendary to nightime playlists. The dinosaurs they clung to were now extinct and listeners ratings were plummeting. So their daytime slots embraced the new rash of bands from these shores. Outsiders like Pulp, previously denied daytime airplay went mainstream just at the time they were producing their best and most accessible work.

Like in punk, strong and talented females were represented in the likes of Elastica and Sleeper. Despite being lumped in under one banner, the groups were diverse, acts such as Gene, Menswear, My Life Story, The Bluetones, all very different, yet singularly British. Top of the Pops featured the bands heavily, some of their members even presenting the programme. It was like a nation rediscovering its musical self.

Oasis simply went into stratospheric overdrive. They lost a mega hyped battle for number one single with Blur that even made the main news programmes. But they shrugged that off with second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? that went on to become the third best selling album in chart history. In 1996, a quarter of a million people watched them play Knebworth. They were a force like no other.

BritPop had gone mainstream. The Spice Girls became the biggest pop act in years featuring Geri Harriwell's Union Jack dress. Noel went to Downing Street to meet new Labour PM, Tony Blair. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. For many bands, they were unable to follow up big selling early releases. The usual creative enemies, drugs and internal stifle took hold, although for a while that seemed to help rather than hinder Oasis. The press moved on to champion new genres and we were left to reflect on a series of good and great records and a time when British music flew its own flag with pride and panache. Something good was in the air around then. A sense of rediscovery. And twenty years on, a lot of the songs still sound good. Don't look back in anger but with British pride.